Mike Soderstrom is our mayor. He currently lives in Carlton and was born and raised in Duluth. He moved to Carlton because “I liked the area, I used to kind of live out in the country.” He has been the mayor since 2018 and plans to be the mayor for a while. He is a great mayor and a great person in our community. 

Mr. Soderstrom is the Mayor.  It is a part time job, so he only comes into the office a couple times a week.  He has been the mayor since 2018.  The funny thing is, he did not even run for mayor!   It was a write in ballot, and he seemed to be the best guy for the job, so he got voted in and has been the mayor ever since.  Once a month he has a city council meeting, where he runs the meeting room.  There, they talk about Carlton business: what needs to be fixed, paying the bills, and talk about things going on at the firehall because ‘that is run by the city as well’.  He signs a lot of legal documents for the city, as well as checks.  He gives much credit to Carol, the city clerk.  He says ‘Carol is our city clerk. She is here everyday. Carol does a lot of the day's operations today. She is kind of like the heartbeat of the city. The mayor is the person who has to sign stuff. As far as running the city, I give a lot of credit to Carol.’  As well as the mayor, he is also a patrol supervisor.  He wanted to be a cop because his dad was a cop in Duluth for 30 years before he started, so “It is kind of like the family business.”  He worked in the jail for about a year, but decided being a patrol supervisor was better for him and has since been that for 33 years.  Mr. Soderstrom enjoys his job.  We can tell!

Mr.Soderstrom went to Duluth Central High School and graduated in 1989.  His favorite class was history/government/civics. He went to UMD college studying Criminology.  Also, he went to Hibbing to improve his police skills. He learned firearms were self defense, pursuit driving, and arrest procedures.

His favorite part of Carlton is “You can walk up and down the street without worrying about getting mugged or killed or carjacked.  I like that we are close to natural resources like Jay Cooke, the bike trails, and you are five minutes from Cloquet. You can run to the store. You are 15 minutes away from Duluth.  Kind of a small town, quality of life type thing.” Mr. Soderstrom moved to Carlton because he used to live in the country and when he moved to town, he loved it.  He thinks that the quality of the people and the schools have stayed the same since he has moved here.

Mr. Soderstrom has been around Carlton for a while.  “I remember where the Streetcar is, it used to be Charlotte's Cafe and there was this old lady in her 90s who used to wear an evening gown and real fancy dresses and wore big gowns and make ups and she ran the cafe in there for a lot of years,” he remembers.  He also talks about Daryl Power, his barber.  Daryl was born and raised in and just outside of Carlton, and is almost 90 years old now.  Mr. Powers is extremely active in the Historical Society, and whenever Mr. Soderstrom gets his haircut, he gets a free history lesson!  Mr. Daryl used to have a place where Magnolia is now. 

Mr. Soderstrom talks about his family: “My wife is a registered nurse for the state of Minnesota.  I have four adult children, two boys, two girls.  My oldest son lives in the city with his girlfriend. My oldest daughter is a 911 dispatcher for Duluth and also works as a paramedic. And my youngest daughter is 19 and in the Engineering school at UMD.  I have a 150 pound St. Bernard named Emma and a jerk cat named FRED!  Heh.” He pretty much coached all of his kids in their sports and he has one brother who lives in Superior. He is 3 years younger than Mr. Soderstrom.

When he was a boy, he grew up on Park Point. He grew up in Lake Superior with the beach in his backyard, and in the summer he went swimming almost every day.  As a matter of fact, his dad still lives down there so whenever he wants to go swimming in Lake Superior he just goes to his dad’s house. He liked to hunt and ride motorcycles.  He also liked to fish, and he still very much enjoys fishing to this day.  

Mike Soderstrom is a very significant person in our community.  He is an excellent mayor and Patrol Supervisor,  and a great person.